RimWorld is one of those games that you either come to love intensely or can’t get into for one of two reasons: you don’t like this genre, or you don’t like this art style. There’s really no in-between, but surprisingly both barriers to getting into the game can arguably be overcome by simply trying it out. In fact, your chances of eventually enjoying the title are pretty good – at least the 114,000+ players who gave the game a positive review on Steam would argue that the overwhelmingly positive title was ridiculously well-deserved.
But what is that? You don’t have a PC, so you can’t give RimWorld past? Well, you’re in luck – thanks to Double Eleven (Prison Architect Console Edition, Rest Console Edition), RimWorld Console Edition has just graced XBox and PlayStation, so pack those bags and get ready to wrangle it on the edge of the known universe.
To sum up quickly, RimWorld is a “sci-fi colony sim, powered by an intelligent AI narrator”, which is a fun way of saying it’s a space colony sim with different levels of emerging storylines going through the game. After choosing between three storytellers (difficulties) and setting up the base of the desired world map (lush, arid, frozen, etc.), players take control of three accidental settlers who suddenly find themselves alone on an isolated planet. While the ideal goal is to return home, players are really free to choose how they play the game and tell the story of this world. Secure, RimWorld can look and feel like Prison Architect, The Survivalists, or Baby I joined a cult at first glance, but the truth is that it’s more like the ultimate rogue-like/sandbox version of the entire genre.
For example, it’s pretty obvious that you want to survive in this strange wilderness, but how that happens is largely up to you… well no, that’s not entirely true. In reality, it mostly depends on how you react to increasingly difficult situations and how much luck is on your side. You could be living your best life in a settlement in your cultivated corner of the universe when suddenly a roaming band of robbers or a herd of insects attacks. You can do your best to fend them off, but life is often nasty, brutal and short in these colonies, and you’ll be lucky if you get away with just a scratch, especially in the beginning.
In fact, it’s this wild type of emerging storytelling that keeps players coming back time and time again. RimWorld provides just enough information about the world and its inhabitants to allow players to create their own stories and lives. The settlers come from different backgrounds, body types, skills and relationships with each other, so releasing some of them into this brand new world offers a seemingly infinite number of ways for their stories to play out. If you have minor issues with the game here and there or if you’re not a big fan of the drawing style, it’s the huge storytelling potential that will surely win you over.
When it comes to RimWorld Console Edition, I will say that the developers have done a great job of creating a game that plays much, much better on PC and optimizing it for consoles. The controls are a bit clunky at first, but they’re much better than they could have been; in fact, after an hour or two of gameplay and it’s as intuitive as can be. I only have one complaint, if I’m honest, but in my opinion it’s not unimportant: the text size. I’ve been wearing glasses since kindergarten, so if a game has small text, I struggle to play. It’s one thing if it’s on PC or Switch because I can usually optimize it or keep it close to my face; with the PS5, it seemed like my only option was to sit close to my TV as if I had a wired controller. I understand not everyone is going to have the same struggles as me, but for the bespectacled crowd, this was definitely a point of frustration, easily making the PC version the much better version (not to mention the mods!) .
RimWorld Console Edition is a fantastic addition to anyone’s game library, whether they’ve played the PC version or not. If the only criticism of the game is that it doesn’t go on sale very often, you know you’ve got an absolute winner on your hands. I wish I could have seen all the text better without having to crawl so close to my TV, but the fact that it’s my only complaint in an otherwise addictive and enjoyable experience speaks volumes. If you’re looking for a game that exceeds expectations in depth and discovery, RimWorld Console Edition will satisfy that hunger for stories.
Final verdict: 4/5
Available on: PC, XBox One, XBox Series X|S, PS4, PS5 (reviewed); Publisher: Double Eleven; Developer: Double Eleven; Players: 1; Released: July 29, 2022; MSRP: $29.99
Editor’s Note: This review is based on a digital copy of RimWorld Console Edition provided by the publisher.
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